


Laughter Lines

by jemmasimmns (laurellance)



Series: Skimmons Week 2016 [1]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: F/F, Skimmons Week
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-24
Updated: 2016-07-24
Packaged: 2018-07-26 10:43:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,194
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7571107
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/laurellance/pseuds/jemmasimmns
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jemma and Daisy, after.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Laughter Lines

The day after HIVE and Lincoln are blown up into space like fireworks, everything changes. Daisy withdraws, looking heartbroken and utterly fragile. May takes LASH's body, to bury it. Holding her head up high, May is barely able to conceal her broken heart, and the loss of the companionship she had been dealt, yet again. Coulson unofficially steps down as the Director of SHIELD, citing too many mistakes as his reason. Jemma takes it as it is, and tries to hold it together. 

Mack holds his shotgun axe close, and no one really points out to him that it was constantly by his side. Refusing to leave Daisy, he follows her and comforts her. Fitz, however, is less understandable of Jemma's grief, and only makes more mistakes and makes it worse. 

In short, they are a mess. They fall apart, and the base feels empty, in a way that it never had before. Haunted, as if it's walls were covered in blood only they could see.

* * *

 

May leaves first. She takes a smaller jet, LASH's body loaded on its back. The body remains in almost perfect condition as it had when Daisy had first come back, and no one misses the tender and heartfelt looks May gives it. 

She remembers the person behind the body, the man she had loved. She remembers the joy, the despair, all of it. And she barely is able to hold her grief back, because Andrew was her anchor, and one of the closest friends she had had. Grief hurt, like it always did, but this was different. More personal, as if someone had tried to stab her heart out.

* * *

 

Coulson leaves them alone, preferring to renovate on Lola. Or something, no one had really cared either way.

* * *

 

Mack starts fixing the base up, working on it step by step. His eyes are haunted by ghosts.

* * *

 

Jemma walks the halls absentmindedly, following a route only she could see. Her eyes are somewhat misty, and it's only done during breaks regardless. The chemicals in the lab are packed up, and the lab looks somewhat better with the shelves straight. The floor is still littered with notes all mixed up, and there is that improvement. 

Jemma also hugs Daisy tightly. It's a bone-crushing one, one that Jemma does not want to let go from. Daisy lets her, and they stay that way for an indeterminable amount of time, cause it's a form of comfort, in a time when everything is awful and everything hurts either mentally or physically. 

They don't know who lets go first, but they do know Daisy whispers to Jemma in a quiet voice, one that expresses so much gratefulness in little words. Both wipe away tears, and neither want to leave the room, to ruin the moment. 

It happens anyway, and it feels final.

* * *

 

The next thing they hear about Daisy is that she's run off, that she's left. There's a voice recording left behind, one that at least gives a sense of indication.

It's still something, however. Jemma holds onto the recording with her life.

* * *

 

They all leave after that. It's to be expected, when everyone had returned to their own coping mechanisms. 

Leaving is a bittersweet thing.

* * *

 

The best time Jemma sees Daisy, it is months later. Her hair is darker, dyed black now, and her smiles are sweeter now, somewhat sadder. Jemma doesn't really change that much-her hair is unchanged, her clothing style similar. 

Their smiles to the other are sad, as if they are sharing a secret no one knew about. It's a melancholy one, one that speaks loads all in itself.

They hug again, this one just as long as the other. Only now, things are somewhat better, looking somewhat more optimistic. It's not much, but it's progress, and progress is always good.

* * *

 

It turns out that Daisy had combined her powers and her background as part of the Rising Tide to do good. She has the power to destroy, to usurp, all by herself. Through her, or her computer, but she doesn't.

Because if Daisy Johnson is anything, Daisy Johnson always strives to be better. She strives to be the better person, to give hope and good back to the world when cynicism dictated that there were no heroes, that it was better to just accept things as they were and move on. 

Daisy has clippings of apprehended robberies and feats done pinned on the wall of her van, and she grins, fully happy. 

(Jemma thinks it's one of the best things she has ever seen, Daisy being this happy.)

* * *

They talk, of course they talk. They laugh, they cry, they remember.

They are bonded through heartbreak, tragedy, and the constant reminder that hope always exists, because hope is what pulls them through at times. 

(Jemma tells Daisy once about Maveth. She describes the planet as blue hell with two Suns, and there is a iron found in her eyes. She must not give up, must not give up hope no matter what. Will Daniels had taught her that, and she smiles bittersweet.

They also end up holding hands under the table by the time the night ends, and neither of them really comment on it. It had felt nice, was a lovely comfort. Besides, xenophobia had never helped anyone.)

* * *

 

Daisy unofficially moves into Jemma's apartment, her newspaper clippings migrating to one of the walls of Jemma's private guest room. Next to it, are memorials of the dead, and Daisy leaves a flash drive of pictures she had of Trip on his memorial. 

They are still haunted by ghosts, but things were better now. Clearer, as if they had kind of made peace with the past. 

(They go to the other, in times of need or loneliness. Daisy is most commonly found looking at the memorials, adding to them, while Jemma would be found by the window, watching the single sun rise morning.

Having human comfort for once, having someone who could be there was a blessing for both of them. 

They keep holding hands.)

* * *

 

Eventually they are assumed to be called a couple several times, and Daisy goes along with it. The handholding is obvious, although they had not been handholding when asked about it. 

The little kid had said they looked like they were in love. Daisy had laughed, and Jemma had blushed.

* * *

 

They kiss for the first time that night, and it's a fumbling of lips crashing into the other, tasting the other with desire, and handholding was safe for work for what was done that night. 

They had been on the wall, Jemma pressed against the wall as they tried to remove the clothing off the other. Kisses all over the other has ensued, as a desperate battle of wills and cravings has happened.

* * *

 

"Jemma? Which company should be next?"

"You'll only encourage the media, they're already wondering who this mysterious Quake is."

"You're saying the mysterious quake, shouldn't you be more worried?"

"NASA. The illicit space programmes they had fourteen years ago, the ones that sent astronauts to _It_ , are still functional."

* * *

 

It's not quite happily ever after, but it's a ending they can work with.

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Skimmons Week :DD 
> 
> tumblr @ staliahs.


End file.
